Congress passes $3.1 trillion budget

From Staff Reports

Published 7:00 pm, Wednesday, June 4, 2008

To House Republicans disappointment, a $3.1 trillion budget blueprint for 2009 passed today by a four vote margin.

“It is unconscionable that Democrats want to kick American families while they are down,” U.S. Rep. Michael McCaul, R-Austin, said in a statement. “The Democrats controlling Congress want to increase everyone’s taxes and dig an even deeper hole in our economy.”

The measure, which passed the Senate Wednesday, sets parameters for future Congressional actions and not a budget that would go to the president.

When preparing for a new fiscal year, which begins on Oct. 1, the majority party drafts a budget and typically Congress votes along party lines.

Absent from the budget document is funding for the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Critics also point to the missing $60 billion to ensure that millions of taxpayers from the middle-class are not affected by the alternative minimum tax.

According to McCaul’s estimates the total tax increase will amount to $683 billion, with an average increase of $2,755 per Texas taxpayer.

According to the Associated Press the $1,000 per child credit, relief from the marriage penalty, estate tax cuts and the 10 percent tax rate on the first $7,825 of income for individuals are included in the budget plan.

But cuts to income tax rates, capital gains and dividend income are not included in the budget and are predicted to go unauthorized in 2012.

The future of the taxes will largely depend on who is elected to office in November— presumptive presidential nominees John McCain or Barack Obama.

McCaul joined his party in voting against the Democratic budget, that includes more than $1 trillion in discretionary spending.

“The United States cannot continue down this path of reckless spending and tax hikes,” McCaul said in a statement. “With a struggling economy the last thing our country needs is to increase taxes. Principally, I believe it is wrong. But this increase from the Democrats couldn’t come at a worse time.”